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The family of Michael Adebolajo, one of the men arrested over the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby, today expressed their "profound shame and distress" over the "senseless killing" and sent their "heartfelt condolence" to the soldier's relatives.

Following calls to tackle hate speech at universities, Business Secretary Vince Cable said there was a "very difficult balance to strike" between protecting free speech and stopping extremists inciting violence.

Speaking at an event in central London, Mr Cable said: "We have recognised that there are extremists on university campuses. We have got a strategy which we are developing with the university authorities to deal with it.

But it's obviously a very difficult balance to strike between freedom of speech, which is absolutely fundamental to our value system as a country, and stopping incitement to violence.

MI5 is not in the dock even though MPs are preparing to investigate the service's operations prior to soldier Lee Rigby's murder, a former defence secretary said today.

Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) will also answer whether or not security agencies fell short in the case of the Woolwich murder, its chairman Sir Malcolm Rifkind said.

Sir Malcolm added that the effect of Government spending cuts on the security services will be analysed during the ISC's review and any further reduction in resources would be a cause for concern.

Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme Sir Malcolm said,

"Do remember one fundamental point: the fact we have not had anyone killed until these tragic events in Woolwich since the 7/7 bombings (in London) in 2005 is not because there hasn't been terrorist plots.

Every year since 2005 there has been at least one, sometimes two or even more, terrorist plots which were disrupted and prevented from killing British citizens, partly because of the work of MI5 - in some cases very largely because of the work of MI5 - and other intelligence agencies."

People lay flowers at the scene of the death of Drummer Lee Rigby Credit: ITN

Police are still questioning a 50-year-old man on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. He was arrested yesterday in Welling in South east London, following the killing of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich last week.